Once Upon a Weed....

Before I left to visit my sister and her new baby - I noticed a weed.... 

I'm  out with the dogs in the back yard every day so it is easy for me to notice something new in the flower bed - that should not be there ~mostly the neighbor's son's balls (he plays everyday), occasionally the bird feeder is knocked down.   This flower bed is a bit over grown any way due to the builder's landscaper - I think he just wanted to be 'done'  and put the all the plants that we agreed upon in a bit smaller flower bed; hence the overgrown bed... but when a tall slender weed  came up through the bushes and irises it was noticeable but I was ... busy......and it was a sticky,  prickly tall slender weed - that grasping with my unprotected hand was a distasteful thought.  So the weed was let to grow,  unsupervised and totally protected  being inside the bushes and landscape. 

While I was holding my new nephew for days and having a wonderful time being with my sister and her new family - the sticky; prickly weed grew and grew due to the Texas sun and the wonderful rain it received for days and days.

Upon my return home I take the dogs outside to play and do their business and remembered the weed.  I walked around the corner of the house and there it was in it's glory - it had shot up almost 3 feet taller and had bloomed!  It will be removed but for now I'm enjoying it's bright yellow beauty.  Probably dropped there by an unsuspecting bird but a bright spot for me today. 

There's a thought there but I'm going to leave it for ya'll to ponder....   

First Day of School

It was a wonderful first day of school.  

They had a blast and of course love their new teachers already - I hope that affection holds after they begin receiving homework!  

The theme this year is "School is Groovy"  Goes well with Rachel's new dress!  

Have a good week!   

Rachel's Letter to a New First Grader

Last night at Meet the Teacher night - the children wanted to visit their teachers from last year.    Outside Rachel's First Grade class the bulletin board that had letters that Rachel and her class mates had written to the upcoming First Graders - it was so sweet, I had to take a picture.  :) 

Meet the Teacher Night ~ Check!

What a blast - the children were so excited ~ and Rachel said, " she had a little nervous tummy"

Yes - as you can see Rachel's teacher is expecting the end of September.......

We have heard great things about  Rachel's new teacher so I'll keep my fingers crossed. 

Patrick seems to really like his new teacher right off the bat and he has a couple of children in his class from last year. His teacher is very tall and used to play basketball. She's very funny too.    

Patrick and Rachel and their Daddy helped put away all their new school supplies, put their name on everything.  Lots of excitement. 

We cleaned out closets and drawers of all clothes we've outgrown this summer and Lucy had a bath today!  Yea - all doggies smell good right now!  

Have a great weekend!

Wednesday Travel Pics

Sorta've  old timey  McDonalds 

All the Rain we had yesterday - as we turned onto our last highway before getting home the rain stopped and the rainbow came out...  Thank you photographers; Patrick and Rachel!

I saw this sign in Arkansas - it's for my nephew Brady - his first name is Remington!  :) (I pulled over to take this one too - so no one was hurt during this photograph) 

Ta Ta

We are home... safe and sound

No pictures today;  I'm not sure where the cord is to download pictures at the moment.  The rain slowed us down quite a bit - 12 hour drive today.  

We had such a wonderful time with Betsy & Stephen, Master Daniel.  Grammy & Grandpa Michael were  just icing on the cake.    

It was a bit crowded in Betsy & Stephen's one bedroom apartment but we appreciate them allowing us to come at this time before school started.

We also - had a special treat today when passing through Memphis - we visited Sister #4; Aunt Boo!  It's been too long since we had time with her and the children and I loved catching up. We only visited for about 30 minutes but it so nice.  Boo  - the children are still talking about your house!  :)  

It is good to be home - now.... laundry!   

Super Tuesday....

Just a quick picture or two of Daniel and various relatives...  :)   

Grammy & Grandpa Michael came in today and took Patrick and Rachel out for a several hours today for a picnic lunch and time at a local park. 

I of course was able to hold Daniel for hours.... it was wonderful...    :) 

Stephen came home between jobs today and immediately sat down and had some Daddy/Son time..  :) 

Rachel of course had been asking for days to hold Daniel and since we are leaving so early in the morning today she received her wish.....     

Have a great week and I'll update you when we back to Texas tomorrow!  Remember us in your prayers.   

Aunt Tammy

Sunday Update

Baby Daniel and his mom will be home from the hospital tomorrow!

We had a great day visiting with Bethany and I was able to hold him too!  I feel so old - I'm  23 years older than Betsy!  

Grammy had fun holding him too!  What a nice picture of three  generations! 

(Daniel was getting hungry!)  

His while blood cell count was down today so they didn't allow Patrick and Rachel in to visit with him but since he's breathing so much better and off oxygen and will have  been on antibiotics for 48 hours - they can see him tomorrow after he comes home.  You will know as soon as I do b/c I will be snapping pictures and downloading them asap.  

We will head home to Texas on Wednesday so keep us in your prayers!  

And be sure to say a prayer for my cousin Mark and his wife Faith!  Very long labor and delivery but have a new baby girl!  Number six for them and her name is Grace.  

Have a wonderful week! 

Baby Daniel Update

We arrived around 7:30pm; not bad considering we left late (9am)  the drive was really perfect - not a lot of traffic, very cloudy.   :) 

Daniel - turned a corner last night and they were able to take the oxygen off and he's breathing on his own.   He's just beautiful - don't you think?

Betsy was insisting on breast feeding him last night and the nurses for some reason just kept giving him sugar water so we had to get the doctor involved.   She was going to feed him last night. 

Daniel is having to stay at the hospital till Monday for sure but Betsy and Stephen we going to get to hold him last night!  YEA!

Have a good Lord's Day!

Daniel Bradley

7lbs 3.4 oz   and 21 inches long

He was born with 'wet lungs' so they are keeping him on iv antibiotics and oxygen for the next 48 hours but everything looks good.  :) 

We of course are late leaving this morning but you just can't rush breakfast, bathroom for kiddos that for some reason slept in till 7AM.  If you know me - my children are always early risers - (5:30-6:30 AM ) consistently so for them to sleep in  was tough on me - I want to always get going early so even now while typing - I'm encouraging (rushing) the boy and girl to brush their teeth and get their shoes on.. :) 

Keep Daniel in your prayers and I'll update ya'll as soon as I can! 

Baby Daniel's on his way....

Betsy is in labor,  Daniel's heart beat is strong - 5cm dilated - strong contractions - I'll keep you posted as I can. 

Children and I are heading out in the morning and it's a 11-12 hour drive - so I'll try to update you as I can...    :)    Hopefully I'll have pictures for you next time you hear from me!

Please pray for safe delivery for Betsy and Daniel and travel mercies for children and  I .   

Love you bunches,

Quiet Week...

We should be gearing up for school but instead we are waiting on a new nephew to make his presence known to the world...   

In the meantime I've been making Tammy's Goulash ,

  Beef Tips and MeeMaw's Spaghetti and Meatballs and freezing it all  to take and fill their freezer!  I made an extra batch of the beef tips with rice and green beans for dinner one night. It was very good and everyone loved it.  :) 

Today I baked 2 loaves of Grandma Robinson's Banana Bread and some  yummy Emergency Chocolate Cake.  One thing you should never do is try to remove the cake/bread from the dish before it's had a chance to cool - hence the broken yummy chocolate bread.  :)    Let's just say it was  really yummy and fast to make and cook - but you need to let it cool completely before removing it from the dish.  

Monday we had these cool storms   pass through the area - some  parts of North Texas received over a half an inch of rain  - and while these clouds passed by us - and were so low they looked   like the touched the tops of  trees - they didn't  give us any rain at all.  But it was shady all day and the kiddos loved it. 

This coming weekend is our 'tax free' weekend for Texas - I don't know if it's like this everywhere -but it is crazy shopping - there are a million people  out and they all are very aggressive about what they want.  I don't like it but it really does save a lot of  money.    So I'll keep you posted  and can't wait to find that  perfect ' first day of school outfit'.   :) 

I'll keep you posted - so check back!   

Monday.... Cook book project

I just wanted to blog that I have finished  part one of the typing all the recipes into the computer for the cookbook project.  I've been typing on and off every day and am finally finished! 

OK - part one - make the file ,,,, now part two I down load  the file to this website I found - I'll pass  it along when I find it... if you know me,  I now  have to follow through and it's not one of my better qualities.  I have very good intentions but you'll see!  

I've had a couple  of people  interested in a copy so just let me know :)  

I've let go of a dozen magazines, organized the papers a bit better and have let go of 4 cookbooks - maybe more - it's just so hard to let go of cookbooks; even though I've never cooked from the Frugal Gourmet's cookbook  = he was just such an interesting man and I love the stories he has with  his recipes.   

We had a visitor in our back yard today....

I opened the door to let the dogs out around 2pm and immediately grabbed the dogs and turned them back inside.  Grabbing my handy camera and threw an old gooey tennis ball toward the front door - as the dogs went running after the old gooey tennis ball - I quickly stepped out  the back door and started snapping several pictures waiting for him/her move again.  

After a time of about 45 minutes I went a head and let the dogs out and nothing happened.   He/she just sat there watching the dogs - look up and behind Goldie!  

The hawk was sitting on our back fence for over 2 hours before flying away.  In those two hours - our yard was the quietest I have ever heard in our four years of living here.  

Peach Picking

I have to tell you - it was my first time to pick peaches and in comparison to blueberry and strawberry picking it was a bit more difficult.   

Peaches may look good on one side but if they are green on the other side -and you pick them - they will never go  onto become the yummy sweet fruit you dream of in summer. So you have to be very careful at picking - making sure it was ripe.  There  were trees falling over from the heaviness of the fruit and yet in all those peaches -most of them weren't ready yet....... maybe next week.   

It started out a great day in Texas -in August - at only 74 degrees and stayed in low temperatures till after noon today - and it was drizzling too.  So all the trees were covered with water and as the kids pulled on a peach they each received a shower which brought tons of giggles. 

They did wear out quickly carrying peach buckets so by the end our time there I was carrying three buckets! But the yummy peach ice cream at the end was a tremendous reward.  

Now I'll begin making jams and canning some peaches -I'll keep you posted it's my first time to can peaches!  

Have a great weekend!

Thursday Daily Dose of Cuteness

Just another picture of my furry girls..... notice where they are?

Half way between pantry and sink and right smack dab in front of stove top...... 

This is how I fixed dinner..... ballet steps over the girls..  

:)  Have a super weekend!  

Cool .... Tuesday

It  was a beautiful day today- Hurricane Edouard brought us some more beautiful clouds and almost 10 degree cooler than it had been forecasted - so for those of you not in Texas - 95 degrees and clouds is so nice compared to 105 and no clouds.  It was beautiful. 

Yesterday Rachel had a play date with a best friend - they were in preschool together when they were 3 years old - so they've known each other for four years now and have a super time together. Yesterday they were playing in H & G's pool.  They loved it and had a super time! Thanks H&G!

The children had a play date  today with friends that were siblings - it's very handy when Patrick has a friend  that has a little sister - so Rachel has  a ready made friend.  This one was a bit tough - b/c the friend's sister is only five - and it seems that there is more than 2 years separating 5 & 7 years old.    It worked out in the end.  

The garden is looking good - the purple cone flower is trying to survive in spite of the bunnies - check  out this picture. 

I should have taken a picture of the chicken Parmesan before dinner - but this is all that was left!  It will make a nice lunch for me tomorrow.  :) 

The children and I made an Mennonite Dessert recipe I found on another blog.  I had some strawberries and the timing was perfect.  I forgot the 1/3 cup of sugar you were supposed to put over the fruit and it still came out pretty good.  

Fruit Platz  (pronounced ploats)   

You can use any fruit you want - I want to do it with blueberries next!

Base Layer:

1/2 cup softened butter ( no oil)

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup cream or milk

pinch of salt

Fruit Layer:

enough fresh or frozen fruit to cover base layer

1/3 cup sugar (1/2 cup if using rhubarb)

Top Layer:

1/2 cup softened butter (no oil)

1 cup flour

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 *F.  Mix the base layer and spread out with your hands in the bottom of a 10x15 pan.  Spread your fruit on top (I used 1 1/2 pounds fresh sliced strawberries)  and evenly sprinkle the sugar on top.  Mix the top layer with a fork till it is very crumbly, and spread over the top of the fruit.  Bake for 35-40 minutes.  It's great with ice cream - but a whipped topping would be good too.  :)